newsletter

Holiday season newsletters that provide a year-end update of family news have entered a new era thanks to a family of clowns from Minnesota, which has invented the world’s first wearable newsletter.

It takes the form of a floor-length onesie built for four, which the Chalmers family of Rochester, Minnesota, is climbing into this festive season in a bid to pioneer a unique new form of year-end newsletter.

It may also be the world’s largest newsletter, with a surface area of nearly 50 sq. ft.

Diane and Greg Chalmers and their sons, Garron, 13, and Keenan, 10, plan to model their newsletter during family visits over the holidays. Their one-piece, wearable newsletter is, they feel, the perfect way to show seasonal togetherness, while delivering the year’s family news in a distinctive new format.

Diane, 39, and Greg, 41, have been sending a holiday season newsletter to family and friends for about 15 years. It provides the usual year-end update of family happenings at home, work, school and on vacation.

“Last year we sent out about 80 newsletters, which we’d printed as cards using Hallmark," says Diane. “This year we wanted to try something different.”

They therefore printed this year’s newsletter on fabric using Spoonflower. They picked a stretchy, polyester fabric that allows some forgiveness in sizing.

A seamstress then turned the fabric into an outfit – a giant, floor-length garment designed to fit the whole family, complete with holes for each of their heads but a total of only two sleeves. “It’s not super comfortable,” concedes Diane, “but it’s festive and fun.”

“This is a small step for a family but a giant leap for family newsletters,” says Stephen Fraser, co-founder of Spoonflower. “Wearable technology is old news; wearable newsletters are the next big thing.”

A growing number of people are now also producing video newsletters. The most striking recent example was a rap video newsletter called “Xmas Jammies”, produced two years ago by the Holderness family of Raleigh, North Carolina. It went viral and by now has over 16 million views on YouTube.

The Chalmers family newsletter itself carries news of everything from the children’s progress on their musical instruments to Grandpa George’s 70th birthday and the family vacation to North Carolina, where the boys saw the ocean for the first time.

Those close family members, meanwhile, whom the Chalmers are unable to visit personally will instead be receiving the same news but printed on a tea towel, also via Spoonflower.

Greg is the only full-time clown in the family, Diane has a day job as a project manager in IT. But the whole family performs regularly together as a clown troupe known as Giggle Givers. They entertain at children’s parties, school events, churches, parades and company picnics.

The first time that they performed as a family was over eight years ago when Garron was five and Keenan two. “Keenan fell asleep in a wagon off-stage before our skit started; so, we just pulled it on stage with us,” says Diane."He woke up at the end of our performance, sat up, and looked at the audience, who went wild with applause."

“Like Giggle Givers”, says Diane, “we hope that our wearable newsletter will make people laugh, while the tea-towel version will be a great way of remembering 2015.”

First he published the world’s longest Christmas newsletter, as a 160-page book; now, he’s published the world’s widest, on a six-foot roll of gift-wrap.

If writing year-end family newsletters were an extreme sport, Doug Hughes of Santa Clara, California would surely be world champion.

Ten years ago he set a world record – unbeaten to this day – for the longest Christmas newsletter, when he published his family’s as a 160-page paperback book. This year he’s back, with a different record – for the world’s widest newsletter.

He has used Spoonflower to publish the 2015 edition of the family’s annual newsletter – known as “Hughes News” – on a roll of gift-wrap, six feet wide by just over two-foot high.

Doug, 66, and his wife Diane, 58, are then using the gift-wrap to wrap a unique festive greeting card printed by Spoonflower on fabric in the form of a tea-towel.

“This marks a new era in the history of Christmas newsletters,” says Stephen Fraser, co-founder of Spoonflower. “Doug Hughes has raised the bar again.”

This year’s newsletter is the latest shot in Doug’s decades-long campaign to change the image of the oft-maligned end-of-year family newsletter.

"We’ve spent the past 30 years on a mission to prove that the venerable Christmas newsletter doesn’t have to be boring. “With a little creativity, it can be touching, entertaining and fun”, says Hughes. “Friends write to us every year thanking us for keeping them on our mailing list.”

Apart from the year that they produced their annual missive as 160-page book, the Hugheses have been sending out a 16-page family newsletter each year for the past 30.

Their 2015 newsletter contains all the Hughes family news fit to print, from news of daughter Karin’s wedding to photos of a cruise to celebrate the 80th and 85th birthdays of Diane’s parents… plus some of the Christmas carol parodies that Doug pens each year. It is printed on the gift-wrap in a repeating pattern.

The tea-towel, meanwhile, depicts a unique pyramid of popcorn tins and stuffed animals that the Hughes family erects each year in their entryway.

Doug, who works in communications for Lockheed Martin, does not mind that that some people will view his increasingly elaborate newsletters as the ultimate "humblebrag." “Some folks go all-out to decorate their homes for Christmas," he argues. “We go out all out to do something special with our newsletter.”

Doug was inspired to try something new for this year’s newsletter by the 30th anniversary of Hughes News, the 25th anniversary of his marriage to Diane and the tenth of the publication of the world’s longest newsletter in 2005.

Another reason for trying something new year, says Doug, is simply because he can. “Technology has advanced so much since we started.”

Santa Clara, CA, Tuesday, Dec. 15 – First he published the world’s longest Christmas newsletter, as a 160-page book; now, he’s published the world’s widest, on a six-foot roll of gift-wrap.

If writing year-end family newsletters were an extreme sport, Doug Hughes of Santa Clara, California would surely be world champion.

Ten years ago he set a world record – unbeaten to this day – for the longest Christmas newsletter, when he published his family’s as a 160-page paperback book. This year he’s back, with a different record – for the world’s widest newsletter.

He has used the website Spoonflower to publish the 2015 edition of the family’s annual newsletter – known as “Hughes News” – on a roll of gift-wrap, six feet wide by just over two-foot high.

Doug, 66, and his wife Diane, 58, are then using the gift-wrap to wrap a unique festive greeting card printed by Spoonflower on fabric in the form of a tea-towel.

“This marks a new era in the history of Christmas newsletters,” says Stephen Fraser, co-founder of Spoonflower. “Doug Hughes has raised the bar again.”

Rochester, MN, Tuesday, Dec. 15 – Holiday season newsletters that provide a year-end update of family news have entered a new era thanks to a family of clowns from Minnesota, which has invented the world’s first wearable newsletter.

It takes the form of a floor-length onesie built for four, which the Chalmers family of Rochester, Minnesota, is climbing into this festive season in a bid to pioneer a unique new form of year-end newsletter.

It may also be the world’s largest newsletter, with a surface area of nearly 50 sq. ft.

Diane and Greg Chalmers and their sons, Garron, 13, and Keenan, 10, plan to model their newsletter during family visits over the holidays. Their one-piece, wearable newsletter is, they feel, the perfect way to show seasonal togetherness, while delivering the year’s family news in a distinctive new format.

Over the past week, we asked all of our lunar lovers to pick their favorite Moon Phases contest design. First in our celestial winners' circle is Petite Circus, with her design, "Little Deer." Don't forget to show some love to the entire top ten, and explore this collection of magical moon designs!

We send out a fun, community-spirited email once a week that covers our fabric of the week contest and Spoonflower news such as new fabric announcements, promotions, and the like. We hate spam every bit as much as you. Unsubscribe with a single click anytime. You can read our privacy policy here.